Something I was really looking forward to seeing in Haiti was the Maternity Center. I have been reading about it and following what is going on there for five years now. It was time that I set foot in that place!
We got a personal tour from Beth McHoul. She is one of the midwives here and, also, it was Beth and her husband John that founded Heartline 25 years ago. It was kind of a big deal to get to meet the two of them. One of the highlights of our week in Haiti was getting to meet them and having dinner at their house! Beth is an amazing cook and she is so kind and gentle. I only had to talk with her for about 5 minutes to feel her passion for maternal care for the Haitian ladies.
This is a classroom where they teach anything from the importance of birth control, a healthy diet, child care and breast feeding.
This is the delivery room. They have all the equipment they need to help a woman have a safe delivery. If the delivery becomes something that they can’t do, they have an ambulance and will take the mom to a hospital.
We were at the Maternity Center on a Tuesday.
This is the day the ladies come in with their babies.
(This little girlie was too much.)
They come in weekly for check ups of the mom and baby, bible study, high protein meals, classes and fellowship. We were told that this day they were learning about what to do when their baby gets sick.
Once a week the pregnant moms come in also for the same high protein meals, bible study, check ups and classes.
A new program that recently started is that they are now going into a hospital and teaching the ladies there about breast feeding. In Haiti, breast feeding is not the norm and babies get sick and die because of it. Beth said this is a huge deal for them to be aloud in the hospital to teach the moms there.
Some of the midwives packing prenatal vitamins for the moms to take home until the next week. My nurse brain was on over load here. When I heard one of them say something about moms being on double iron I piped up and asked about constipation. Sorry, I can’t turn it off.
A surreal moment on our trip was being on the Heartline property and getting to see and walk through the first phase of the new maternity center that is being built. You may remember that two years ago some friends, Shad and I did a 5K to help raise funds for this building. Here they will be able to care for more women and do high risk deliveries, like C-Sections. Wow, it was amazing to see this!
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